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“It was every bit as grotesque as we feared,” cringed Page Six of the New York Post after Dr. Phil aired its full interview with addled actress ShelleyDuvall late Friday afternoon.
“The star of The Shining, age 67, struggled to string together more than a couple coherent words at a time, and bore little resemblance to the actress who appeared in a number of popular and critically acclaimed movies of the 1980s.”
Truth be told, she bore more than a little resemblance to egotistic ex-Jets’ football coach Rex Ryan.
Ironically, a 1987 People profile began: “Just a glimpse of those impossibly wide eyes, that tooth-filled grin and that ponytail, perched like a Tower of Pisa (below left), is enough to elicit a shock of recognition. Yes, it’s Shelley Duvall.” Nowadays, we’re leaning more toward Shelley Doughnut {she’s packed 75 pounds on her 5’8” frame}.
“I need to get the Bermuda Triangle off of me, because I do not want a hairy chest,” the confused recluse advises Dr. Phil face to face (below left). “I’m not a Chia Pet.” Not one you’d pet on bet: “They didn’t hurt mynipples, but they hurt to all the way up here”—gesturing to just below her breasts and starting to raise her top {as she earlier had lifted her pants leg}.”
“I’ll take your word for that,” the good doctor demurs {click at bottom right to expand}:
But detractors weren’t deterred. “Promotional efforts were met with swift and near-unanimous condemnation,” noted the New York Post. “Vivian Kubrick, whose father directed Duvall in The Shining” {which surely helped drive her to this juncture} …
… “called for a boycott of the show in a scathing statement: ‘You are putting Shelley Duvall ‘on show’ while she is suffering from a pitiable state of ill health.’ Ronan Farrow, the son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen {who ‘ate her out’ for hours in Annie Hall, see Part 1}, echoed Ms. Kubrick’s sentiments soon after on Twitter. ‘Dr. Phil’s exploitation of the wonderful Shelley Duvall is shameful. She deserves respect.’” And a lot more than mere self-aggrandizing tweets from a scattered Scientologist and a Gomez-grasping playboy!
Aware how hollow her hundred-forty character carping seemed, Kubrick has launched a Go Fund Me page to help Shell get well … or is it to help her cult’s coffers swell?
Skeptics pointed to the fact that “Kubrick is requesting $100K without knowing the details of Duvall’s condition, or how much her treatment will cost.” And oddly, “The location listed on Vivian’s Go Fund Me page is Clearwater, FL. Neither Kubrick nor Duvall lives there; it is, however, the home of The Church of Scientology’s business operations.”
Further, the Church “maintains the very notion of mental illness is a fraud,” in its own words … and in those of Horror Freak News: “Scientology has a long history of hostility towards psychiatry.” Indeed Vivian’s words in a recent tweet seem a bit offbeat for one seeking to treat:
And speaking of treatment, the daughter’s director dad seems to have saved his harshest for the doe-like Duvall. “I lost some of my innocence on The Shining,” Shelley sighed to Roger Ebert just after filming wrapped. Working with Kubrick was “almost unbearable.”
Author Stephen King had envisioned his heroine Wendy as “a cheerleader blonde, who couldn’t see the horror coming her way”…and lead-actor Jack Nicholson thus suggested his Postman Always Rings Twice lover, juggtastic Jessica Lange to Kubrick—who chose the beanpole brunette instead.
“And so,” reveals Movie Pilot, “her horror began. “‘Stanley was a different director’ with Duvall, Nicholson later admitted. He frequently kept her isolated” or openly ignored her.
“Kubrick cut many of Wendy’s lines and forced her to perform the iconic ‘baseball bat’ scene an exhausting 127 times! The scene entered TheGuinness Book of Records as the most takes ever for a scene with spoken dialogue and her shaking hands and red, puffy eyes are the result of genuine crying.” {Somehow shaky Shelley managed to sign this shot of the scene … this year!}
“Afterwards she presented the director with clumps of her own hair, to show just how close to the edge she was.”
If not over it: “I do recall I had a really bad anxiety attack on set,” she told Ebert afterwards. “I got to the point I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I had a little breakdown.”
“It was very upsetting … he [Kubrick] can do some pretty cruel things when you’re filming. He gets frustrated and angry. I was really in and out of ill health.”
How ironic, then, that her “helper” Vivian Kubrick—who admits not speaking with the actress since doing a documentary called Making The Shining at age 24 (below left, she’s now 56)—wrote shortly before hearing of Duvall’s descent, “I loved my Dad with all my heart and soul” (below right, on the Shining set).
Yet in the documentary, Vivian “reveals that her father’s trick was to ensure that Duvall got no sympathy from anyone on set. You can even hear him say to her, ‘Don’t sympathize with Shelley.’” So don’t start now …
Not surprising that, after being Jack’d around, Shelley could never bury the hatchet: Is it any wonder she’s schizophrenic?
Truth be told, it looks like the actress appeared worried and weary ever since!
But before then, she “got more cock than a horny hen … and laid more too!”
“While the Shelley Duvall image may be one of homeliness,” wrote Cosmopolitan in the late Seventies, “the reality is one of rare beauty”—and even rare cleavage!
“Add to that certain unmistakable vibrations: she is a woman interested in men” {and clearly vice versa}:
“I like men!” Shelley cooed of her ’tude. First up {after her divorce from artist Bernard Sampson in ’74} was songwriting superstar Paul Simon—and they lived together from 1976-1978, when she was his date at the L.A. Film Critics Awards …
… and introduced him to her bosom•ier bud Carrie Fisher.
So while the awards article assured us “she’s the only woman in Paul’s life,” the singer promptly practiced one of his 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover—and enter the Star Wars star’s space—leaving Duvall to make a new plan, Stan.
Maybe it was the height differential—at nearly 6 feet tall in high-heeled boots, Shelley towered over 5'3" Simon on the dance floor … while 5’1” Fisher came lip to lip with him.
Not to mention nip to slip.
“I could see there was an attraction there,” Shelley took the high road, “but if Carrie hadn’t come along, somebody else would have. This may sound surprising, but Paul and I are better friends than we were lovers.”
Simon Says you should ‘hop on the bus, Gus’ … but actually broke up with Duvall “at the airport as she was about to board a plane to London to begin filming The Shining.”
No wonder she’s Still Crazy After All These Years—when Dr. Phil asked if the listening device “implanted in her” might be made of chrome, Shelley sadly segued into “Momma don’t take my Kodachrome away … P.S., I Love You” {did those initials stand for Paul Simon?}.
I Am a Rock, is another hit he wrote … but before ditched Duvall was even Homeward Bound, he’d slipped a rock on Fisher’s finger as they went Slip Slidin’ Away to the altar. It lasted all of 11 months.
And it’s a wonder Shell didn’t jump off a Bridge over Troubled Water when Simon reneged on the juicy role he’d written for her in the film he was making, 1980’s One Trick Pony, and bedded Blair Brown instead.
Needing some “comic relief” after the double whammy of Simon’s Sounds of Silence and The Shining, Duvall decided to rush headlong into another film being made in London … which was likely the straw that broke the camel’s back—and nearly her neck.
“Hold on, here comes that little pain again,” she winced to interviewer Roger Ebert after filming finished. “It only comes about twice a week now, and stays about two minutes. When I was in England, after The Shining, I made a movie called Time Bandits for director Terry Gilliam, of Monty Python fame. And the scene called for six dwarfs to come crashing through the roof of a medieval carriage, but the dwarfs were a bit afraid of jumping off the scaffold, and so Terry didn’t think, he just jumped, and he weighs 180 pounds and landed on my head."
"I could have been paralyzed. As it is, there’s just a pain that comes through my ears to my eye, and then goes away. I’m sure it can be fixed.” Perhaps not …
A condition as complex as Shelley’s surely requires another in-depth intervention … so we’ve scheduled Part 3 to continue our full treatment.
Think of it as appointment television.
